Sea weed picker saved by rescuers from uninhabited islet in White Sea

October 17, 2011, 17:09 UTC+3He dug a hole in the soil, which served as a shelter against strong winds

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ARKHANGLESK, October 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Rescuers searching Russia’s northern White Sea for two missing men from the Solovki monastery have unexpectedly found a young man who has spent 17 days on an uninhibited islet after a boat wreck, a spokesman for the Arkhanglesk regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The twenty-five year old man, a sea weed picker from Solovki, set off alone for a weed picking trip on a boat. The boat sank after a storm on October 1, and the young man managed to get to the nearest islet measuring 50 to 100 meters. He dug a hole in the soil, which served as a shelter against strong winds. His diet consisted of sea grass washed ashore from the sea and drank rain water. He did not leave his petty shelter for the past three days having lost any hope for survival. Only the sound of an approaching helicopter made him gather up and get out.

The man was taken to the city of Akhangelsk, where he was hospitalized after a medical examination. Medics say he is in condition of moderate gravity. “The man id exhausted and has the symptoms of hypothermia. It is strange that no one has reported his absence. No one was searching for him,” the spokesman said.

In the mean time, rescuers continue a search operation for a missing man from the Solovki monastery.

According to earlier reports, the dead body of a monk from the Solovki monastery who has been missing since October 13 was found in the White Sea.

The accident was reported to the Arkhangelsk emergencies centre at about 23:00 Moscow time on Saturday by the Father Superior of the Solovki Monastery. He said that a monk, 48, and a monastery worker, 27, on October 13 had taken a high-speed boat to reach the town of Kem, the Republic of Karelia. The last contact with them was two hours after they left. They had life jackets and drinking water aboard. According to rescuers, it takes 40 minutes to travel to Kem in good weather and two hours in bad weather.

“The weather was bad at the moment, and the Albatros-610 boat taken by the men was not fit for sea trips,” the spokesman said.

On Sunday night, a fisherman found a wrecked boat near the island of Russky Kuzov located halfway from the Solovki monastery to Kem.